There are still a few weeks to go until Sex and the City 2 is out. But the film's publicity has a plot of its own, with each trailer and poster bringing fresh revelations. There are the stars in harem pants! Here they are again, riding on camels in Abu Dhabi! And now, in the latest poster, here they are looking, oh dear, airbrushed. Kim Cattrall's face appears to have morphed into Sharon Stone's; she also has a strangely elongated elbow. Sarah Jessica Parker's upper arms are, intriguingly, thinner than her forearms. And Kristin Davis looks like Sandra Bullock. They all look a little CGI.

As if to present us with a knowing metaphor for this cover-up, SJP is carrying a shawl that billows disguisingly around the bodies of her colleagues, blurring their outlines. Anyone who saw the first film must have been preparing for this moment. A generation of women came through their 20s watching these characters come through their 30s. They were supposed to show us what our next decade could be like; now that their faces and bodies appear frozen, it's time to leave them behind.